Pistonlog ships with four actors — Owner, Manager, Reception, Technician — covering 99% of garages. If your operation needs something different, you can create custom roles with any combination of permissions.
When to create one
- A senior receptionist who needs to see unit costs (gets
parts.view_cost) - A diagnostics technician who needs to see customer phone numbers (gets
customers.viewin full) - A bookkeeper who only needs to see invoices and payments — no jobcard editing
- An inspector who creates inspections but doesn't touch jobcards
How to create one
Open Team Management → Roles
From the admin sidebar.
Click New role
Name the role (e.g. "Senior reception") and optionally add a description.
Tick permissions
The full 46-key matrix is shown — see Permissions reference. Tick the ones this role should have.
Assign team members
From the team list, change anyone's role to your new custom one. They keep their existing access until you change them.
Things to remember
- Roles are per garage. A custom role created at Bristol doesn't exist at Bath until you create it there too.
- No "deny" — only "allow". Permissions are additive. If you want someone who can do everything except delete jobcards, just don't tick
jobcards.delete. - Owner bypasses everything. Custom roles never restrict the owner.
Auditing
The team list shows each member's role at a glance. Click a member to see the resolved permissions — useful when "why can't they do X?" comes up.